Flashover

By Victoria Carr

It takes four days to find the charred body of Joe Humphrey, an accomplished arsonist, in the burned out building. His SUV is parked out front with gas cans in it. His body is found without keys to his car or his wallet.
Investigators work to determine if Humphrey acted alone or was set up.
The owner of the building is suspect from the very beginning. He despises the lead investigator, Carly Crinshaw, and does everything possible to stop her investigation, from kidnapping to murder. This sends Carly down a dangerous path for herself and her children.
When the Chief takes Carly off the case because they are being sued, she brings in her twin sister, a homicide detective from Sarasota, Florida to solve the case.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Victoria Carr
• Release date: Mar 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301644377

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Numerous bystanders huddle together in this normally deserted street watching the building burn. The fire is raging out of control. Flames are shooting thirty feet in the air. It is a spectacular view on this snowy December evening. And the talk is, there is a body inside.

Carly covered her mouth with her gloved hand and started making her way toward the fire chief. Tongues of flame shot into the night sky, the air thick with smoke and ash. Breathing was difficult and her eyes burned. Still, Carly could see the Chief’s silhouette against the burning building barking orders.

Hey, Chief, what have you got?

Doesn’t look like much can be saved, Carly. The Chief motioned at a white Lexus. Plus, we’ve got other complications. When we got here, the guys in that car said someone was trapped inside. They say that’s his SUV parked right in front.

Christ. Anyone inside that is fried. Carly shook her head. Were you able to make a search?

The chief took a long slow breath. Couldn’t. The fire was already through the roof when we arrived.

What kind of business is this?

Construction company. I heard the owners are here, but I haven’t had time to speak to them.

Don't worry about it; I'll go talk to them.

Carly walked toward the white Lexus and tapped on the window. The driver, a big burly man with a full beard and long dark hair rolled down the window.

Hi, I'm Carly Crinshaw, an investigator for the fire department; I need to ask you a few questions.

The big burly guy in a flat monotone voice replied, I think we have an employee in the building.

Why do you think that?

He pointed towards the building. See that brown SUV parked right out front? It belongs to a guy who works for us.

Just because his vehicle is parked there doesn't mean that he's in the building, Carly replied.

I was the last one to leave work tonight and the guy who drives that SUV left work around three in that car. No reason for him to come back here.

What's the guy’s name who owns the SUV?

The guy hesitated, lowered his head and said, Joe Humphrey.

And what's your name?

He looked back at Carly, John Atkins.

So you work here?

Yeah, I'm the President and this is Mike Spears, as he pointed to the man sitting next to him in the car, He's the Vice-President.

I'm going to need a lot more information from the both of you.

We'll be around, Atkins said flippantly.

Good, Carly said, I'll get back with you both in a little while.

Carly saw Lt. Seth Powers drive up and she wanted to fill him in. Powers was in charge of the arson unit.

As Carly walked away from the Lexus, she knew things weren't right. Very systematically the facts start running through her mind. Fire through the roof before the first engine arrives on the scene. The white Lexus is the first car here and is blocked in by fire apparatus, the President and Vice President are calm and they seem to know for sure that someone is in the building.

Carly takes a long deep breath as she surveys the scene; it was going to be a long night.

***

Carly ran down the facts for Lt. Powers and said, I’m going to get my camera and start photographing the scene. I want to get this done while the building is still standing.

I’ll wait for the other team members and fill them in as they get here.

So where did we get you from on this Friday night? Carly asked with a little chuckle in her voice. She knew he would be busy, especially since it wasn't his weekend on call.

I was at the movies with a date, I had to leave her with my sister and brother-in-law.

Aren't you a fun date, I knew you would rather be here with me, Carly said jokingly.

Carly turned and grabbed her camera and went about her business of photographing the building from every angle. Her fingers were aching from the cold December air.

***

Positioned next to all four sides of the building were fire trucks with their aerial ladders fully extended over the building and each pumping about fifteen hundred gallons of water a minute into the center of this blaze. The water didn't even seem to faze the fire.

There was something almost eerie about this fire, the way it raged, defied the attempts of the firefighters to get it under control. Almost as if it had a mind of its own.

The building was red brick and appeared to be quite old.

Windows lined the front of the building with an entry door in the center. The brown SUV was parked directly in front of the door. It appeared that there were offices in the front and a large warehouse in the rear.

Carly finished photographing the building as the fire raged on. Flames were shooting up lighting the night sky. She made her way back to Lt. Powers who was now filling in the rest of the arson team.

Carly was surprised to see all of them show up on a Friday night. None of them looked pleased to be there.

As Carly walked up to the group she was met with a barrage of; Way to go, Carly, couldn't you handle this by yourself?

You owe us for this one.

Couldn't you have waited for better weather before you had the biggest fire of the year?

What's wrong guys, you cold? Carly responded sarcastically through chattering teeth. It was zero out.

Of course they were cold and so was she. The only difference was, they wouldn't admit it.

Lt. Powers was anxious to get the investigation going and back in his car.

I'll interview the president; Robert, you interview the Vice President. Bert, you find the crew that got here first and get their info; Pat, you look for some other eye witnesses and Carly, you go talk to the press, Powers ordered.

All five of the team members took another look at the massive fire in front of them and then each turned and walked away to get their job started. They were more than happy to have an assignment that meant sitting in their car interviewing someone. They could at least try and stay warm.

***

As the three major news channels spotted Carly coming toward them the cameras started rolling.

The press loved Carly. She was something out of the ordinary. She was smart, stylish, and quite beautiful. They loved filming her coming out of a burned up building. She would look just like one of the men from a distance, and then she would take the helmet off and shake that long black hair loose. The dirt on her face just made her blue eyes look bluer. The viewers had grown to love her too, and always wanted to hear what her latest escapade was.

Hold it, guys, I don't have any more than what you already have for now. Let me get a little more information so you have a story and I'll get back with you, Carly said to the group.

Carly verified that they had a report that someone could have been inside and was trapped but could not state it as a fact. All three news channels were doing short live news clips periodically showing the brown SUV and giving a report that the owner of the vehicle may be inside.

Carly thought that it was time to give some consideration to the SUV now that the news was putting it on the air.

The fire had not moved any closer to the front of the building and was still centered in the middle so it appeared safe to approach the SUV.

It was pretty rugged looking. The luggage rack on top and the dent in the passenger side door made it one of a kind. Carly called the plate into the record section and found out that the 2007 Ford was registered to a Joe Humphrey of 1999 Arrow Blvd.

Carly photographed the vehicle from all angles. She was also aware that her every move was being filmed by the news crews. As she walked up to the SUV she was surprised to find that the driver’s door was not locked. What luck. As she opened the door she almost fell over backwards from the smell. The pungent odor of gasoline coming from the inside was so strong it stung her nose and her eyes. A quick look inside and she decided she had better get Lt. Powers.

Carly found Powers still interviewing the President and interrupted, Lieutenant, how about taking a break for a minute? She did not want to let on that there was anything wrong. Her gut instinct told her that Atkins may be involved and he already knew what the problem was.

Powers knew Carly well enough by now that if she needed him, it was for something important. He told her to give him another minute or two to wrap things up.

Carly went back to her car and got several empty paint cans that were used for storing evidence, some small glass vials, several plastic bags, a sharpie and evidence tags. She then notified the dispatcher that she needed a tow truck. She wanted to get the SUV out of there and into a secure place where the evidence crew could go over it with a fine tooth comb.

By the time Carly got back to the vehicle with her evidence kit, Powers had joined her.

You're not going to believe this one, Carly said excitedly.

What's up?

Usually we have to search for evidence, this time it’s being thrown in our faces, take a whiff of this, as Carly pulled open the driver’s door. Damn, Powers replied. Although not as pungent as the first time she opened the door, it was still strong.

There's nothing on the front seats so we can slide in, Carly said. I'll get in here and you get in on the other side.

They both put on rubber gloves so they would not mix their fingerprints with any in the SUV.

Behind the driver and passenger seats were four, five-gallon red plastic gas containers.

Can you believe this, someone wanted to make sure there was nothing left of this place, Carly said pointing at the gas cans.

Now we know why the crews can't bring this fire under control, Powers replied. Twenty gallons is a ton of gas to burn off.

This doesn't make sense. This Humphrey guy works here, he's not supposed to be here tonight, the place is blazing and he leaves four gas cans in his SUV. I've got some questions for Mr. Humphrey, that is, if he is still alive. No one ever, just hands us evidence, Carly said.

Let's take a quick look through some of this stuff in here and we'll leave the rest for the evidence crew, Powers said.

I'm not going to pick this up but here's an empty six pack of beer and a cigarette butt in one of them. Maybe we can get some fingerprints. I'm going to go ahead and mark and tag these gas cans and then let’s get out of here. This SUV is so filthy, I feel like I've got bugs crawling on me, Carly exclaimed.

Okay, I want to finish going through this stack of papers. Here’s something interesting; our Mr. Humphrey owes the IRS $24,000.00 in back taxes. And here are two sets of commercial license plates from out of state. Here, mark and tag these and we'll run them later. The tow truck’s here, let’s get this thing down to the crime lab, Powers ordered.

Carly poured a tiny bit of leftover liquid from each of the four cans into glass vials for testing before leaving the SUV in the hands of the evidence crew.

As Carly and Powers exited the vehicle, Carly had two five-gallon gas cans in one hand and two in the other. She had put them in large plastic bags and secured them with evidence tags. Powers had the glass vials and the license plates. There was no disguising the gas cans. The media filmed both Carly and Powers from the time they left the vehicle until Carly locked the evidence in the trunk of her car. Carly knew she couldn't put the reporters off any longer, she better start answering some questions.

As she walked toward the reporters, the questions started again.

Yes, those were gas cans. Yes, they were empty. No, I cannot say they had gas in them until the lab tells me what was in them. Yes, they are evidence. No, we don't know where the owner of the SUV is. Yes, we are confiscating the vehicle. No, we have not been in the building yet, she said.

Okay, guys, can you put the cameras away for a couple of minutes, I want to ask you a few questions. Did any of you get information that we can use?

A cameraman spoke up and said that he was the first one to arrive and he started asking questions of the people in the two Lexus’. This intrigued Carly because she only knew of one Lexus.

What did you find out?

The man in the black Lexus pulled in first with a young girl in the car. Said he was the owner and something about the SUV being parked out front but I couldn't understand exactly what he was saying because of the sirens. This man then turned and saw the white Lexus pull up, walked over to it, said something to the driver, then went back to his car and drove off, said the cameraman.

Another cameraman spoke up and pointed to two boys in the distance who said they were the ones who called 911 to report the fire. Carly thanked them and said she had work to do. She wanted to get to those two kids tonight and ask them questions.

Carly approached the two boys and said, What’s up guys?

One of the boys looking up to Carly with a big smile on his face responded, Are you a fire woman?

Well, kind of, I'm an investigator for the fire department. Did one of you call 911 and report this fire?

Yeah, I did, responded the taller of the two. He was practically yelling with excitement.

Both the boys had the same crew cut and big brown eyes.

Are you brothers? Carly asked.

Yeah, we live over there, pointing to a small frame house just down from the corner.

What are your names?

I'm Phil and this is Mark.

How old are you?

I'm ten and Mark's eight, Phil replied. Mark had yet to speak a word.

What did you see that made you call 911?

Smoke was coming from the roof of the building, answered Phil as his arms went up in the air demonstrating smoke rising.

Did you see any fire or just smoke?

Just smoke the first time, but after we called 911 we came back out and then we saw flames comin’ out the roof.

Did you see anyone coming or going from the building?

No, but we saw a white truck driving in front of the building and then it stopped right there, Phil paused and pointed, at the corner and didn't do nothin’.

What about you, Mark, did you see anything?

I saw the same thing my brother saw and there's the truck parked over there. Mark pointed about a half a block down where the truck was parked. This was a plain white truck with no markings.

Did you see the guy who was driving the truck? Carly asked.

No, we was watching the fire; it got real big, real quick. Phil’s eyes got bigger as he spoke.

Thanks for the information, I'll probably be by tomorrow to talk to you again with your parents.

The truck was parked on the same street as the construction company, about a half a block away. No one was in it. She wrote down the description of the truck and license number to check out later.

Carly looked around for Powers, she wanted to clue him in on the latest developments. Her instincts told her to try and call Joe Humphrey’s home to see who answered and what information she could get.

Hey, Lieutenant, Carly yelled trying to get his attention. Carly only called him by rank when she spoke about him in public or on a fire scene. Besides those times, it was Seth. They had become good friends over the past year and she respected his position.

Even though Carly worked for Powers, they had become partners and worked on each others cases together. They made a formidable team.

Powers turned when he heard her voice, What do you need, besides some eighty degree weather?

Eighty degrees would be great since I am freezing, I can barely feel my hands, but I need to use your cell. I went off and left mine. Can I have your car keys?

As Powers was trying to retrieve his keys from under his gear, Carly told him about the white truck and asked him to watch for someone getting in it.

Powers had left the car running so it was nice and toasty inside. Carly gave herself a few minutes to thaw out and make a few notes before calling information to get the phone number for Joe Humphrey. She actually did not know what to expect. She had no information about Joe Humphrey except what kind of SUV he drove and where he worked. She would just play this by ear.

Hello, said a shaky female voice.

Hello, my name is Carly Crinshaw, I work for the Danby Fire Department, and I’m calling about a SUV that we just towed. The registration comes back to a Joe Humphrey.

What do you want? replied the voice.

Do I have the correct phone number for a Joe Humphrey who drives a 2007 Ford SUV? Carly asked.

Yes, that’s my husband and I want to know what is going on. I've been watching the news and they say the driver of the SUV is in the building. Now the voice is crying as she is talking.

Who am I speaking with? Carly ignored all the activity going on outside the vehicle.

My name is Lois.

Lois, have you seen Joe tonight? Carly asked with all the sincerity she could muster.

No, I last saw him about five o'clock this afternoon. He was supposed to meet me at the kids school about eight and he never showed up.

I'd like to find him tonight and speak with him about his SUV, can you give me some places to look for him? Carly asked.

Why does the news keep saying he's in the building?

John Atkins and Mike Spears are here and they gave the information to the press, Carly points to the two men as if Lois can see them, but they are just guessing because his vehicle was parked in front of the building. We would like to locate Joe. Can you give me some places where we might look? Carly asked.

Yeah, um, you can look at the VFW hall on High Street. He likes to go in there to eat on Friday nights, answered Lois a little more calmly.

Okay, anyplace else?

No, he doesn't hang out anywhere.

We'll check out the VFW. In the mean-time if he comes in, would you ask him to call the Danby Fire Department? I'll tell him where we towed his car.

Yeah, I'll tell him, bye.

I really don't want to tell him where his SUV is; I want to question him about those gas cans, thought Carly. That is, if he’s still alive.

Carly's next call was to the Sheriff's dispatch. She wanted to get a crew by that VFW to see what they know about Joe Humphrey. She didn't expect to find him there.

She could see Powers off in the distance arguing with the fire department Safety Officer. He apparently approached him about entering the building. It was now about one in the morning and the fire was not out, but controllable. There did not appear at this point to be any fire in the front of the building.

The safety officer was a mealy mouse type guy who couldn't make a decision. That’s probably what prompted the argument because he wouldn't say one way or the other whether the fire investigation team could enter the building.

As Carly approached the two she could hear Powers, All we want to do is look for a body. We'll do a walk through and be done for the evening.

Well, we got a wall leaning and, was all the safety officer could get out before Powers cut him off and turned to Carly and said, Go get Robert, Bert, and Pat, we're going in.

Be back in a sec.

The safety officer never said another word. He knew Powers could win